Authorities followed familiar tactics to control news media, pursuing politicized court cases, imposing fines, using regulatory tools, and harassing journalists. With Egypt seeing a burgeoning community of journalistic bloggers, authorities moved aggressively to monitor and control online activity. At least three online journalists were jailed when CPJ conducted its annual census of imprisoned journalists on December 1.

In February, a judge in Cairo fined five
journalists for violating a court order banning news coverage of the murder
trial of Egyptian businessman Hisham Talaat Mostafa, who was eventually
convicted in the killing of Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim. News reports said
that fines of 10,000 pounds (US$1,803) were levied against editor Magdi
al-Galad and reporters Yusri al-Badri and Faruq al-Dissuqi of the independent
daily Al-Masry al-Youm, along with editor Abbas al-Tarabili and
reporter Ibrahim Qaraa of the opposition Al-Wafd. Sayyid Abu Zaid, lawyer for the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate,
told CPJ that similar charges had been filed, but dropped, against the
state-owned dailies Al-Ahram and Akhbar
Al-Youm.

After highly publicized
proceedings, a Cairo
appellate court in February struck down one-year jail terms against four
editors but upheld 20,000-pound (US$3,540) fines against each of them,
according to news reports. The four editors had been charged in 2007 with
publishing “false information likely to disturb public order” in connection
with stories that raised questions about President Hosni Mubarak’s health at a time
when he had been out of public view. The fines were imposed against Ibrahim
Eissa of the daily Al-Dustour, Adel Hamouda of the weekly Al-Fajr, Wael el-Abrashi of the weekly Sawt al-Umma, and
Abdel Halim Kandil of the weekly Al-Karama.

A principal in the Cairo
News Company, which provides production services to news outlets such as
Al-Jazeera and the BBC, won acquittal in a politicized prosecution, according
to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. Nader Gohar, the company’s
managing director, had faced charges of operating broadcasting equipment
without authorization. The prosecution was thought to have been prompted by
client Al-Jazeera’s coverage of 2008 labor protests in the northern industrial
city of Al-Mahalla al-Kobra, which included footage of protesters tearing down
a poster of Mubarak, CPJ research showed. Fined in 2008, Gohar won acquittal on
appeal in 2009, defense attorney Khaled el-Deeb told CPJ.

With legal and financial
pressures facing traditional media, many Egyptian reporters turned to new media
tools such as blogs, the video-sharing site YouTube, and the micro-blog
Twitter. The government, in turn, has aggressively monitored online information
and harassed bloggers, CPJ found in a September special report, “Middle East Bloggers:
The Street Leads Online.” CPJ identified Egypt as one of the region’s worst
oppressors of online information. Authorities used longstanding repressive
tools such as the press law, penal code, and emergency law, which criminalize
reporting that the government deems “false” or against “the national interest.”
Penalties can range as high as five years in prison and as much as 30,000
Egyptian pounds (US$5,220) in fines.

Authorities also relied on
Web-specific regulators such as the Directorate for Computer and Internet
Crimes. Egyptian blogger Mostafa El Naggar wrote that the office has
engaged in “relentless pursuit of bloggers and citizen journalists, invading
their privacy, [and] hacking into their personal accounts.”

Internet traffic in Egypt passes through
servers controlled by the state, facilitating the monitoring of content,
according to OpenNet Initiative, an academic partnership that studies online
censorship. Gamal Eid, executive director of the Arabic Network for Human
Rights Information, said the information gathered while monitoring digital
traffic is routinely shared among state agencies and used to identify targets
for legal action. “You know you are being watched,” blogger Nora Younis told
WorldFocus, a U.S.
online and broadcast program. “You know your calls are being tapped. The
government is coping with technology, so now we have a new police department
called the Internet police. And they say they are after Internet [fraud and
theft], but at the end of the day they are the ones who deal with the
bloggers.”

Blogger Dia’ Gad was
arrested in February and held incommunicado by state security agents after
writing critically about Egypt’s
border closings with Gaza
and restrictions on humanitarian aid, according to reports by Amnesty
International and other human rights groups. Gad was released without charge
the next month after his case sparked international outcry. Three other
bloggers were not as fortunate.

Mosad Suleiman, known
online as Mosad Abu Fagr, was still being held in late year despite his
acquittal in February 2008 on trumped-up antistate charges. At least 13
judicial orders were issued directing that the journalist be released, but the
Interior Ministry used the Emergency Law to circumvent the directives.
Immediately after each order of release, the ministry countered with its own
administrative order directing Suleiman’s continued detention. The provisions
of the Emergency Law are such that the government can use the strategy an
unlimited number of times. Suleiman wrote about social and political issues
affecting the Bedouin community in Sinai on his blog, Wedna N’ish (We Want to Live).

Blogger Hani Nazeer Aziz,
who wrote about Coptic minority issues, the state security apparatus, and local
religious officials, was also being held in late year under the Emergency Law.
Defense lawyers said they had been prevented from visiting Aziz on multiple
occasions, and that their client had been mistreated in prison. All of the
material on Aziz’s blog had been deleted by an unidentified third party.

Abdel Karim Suleiman,
known online as Karim Amer, was serving a four-year prison term imposed in
February 2007, when a court in Alexandria
convicted him of insulting Islam and President Mubarak. The verdict was the
first in which an Egyptian blogger was convicted explicitly for his work, CPJ
research shows. In November 2007, the Arabic Network for Human Rights
Information and the HishamMubarakCenter
for Law reported that Suleiman had been severely beaten by another
prisoner and a guard.

Other online journalists
faced harassment. Wael Abbas, a popular and award-winning blogger, was briefly
detained at the Cairo airport in June after
returning from a trip to Sweden.
Abbas wrote that his passport and laptop were confiscated and that he was told
that “his name appeared on a state security list.” Abbas has been the target of
constant harassment from government officials after posting videos of police
brutality on his blog in 2006. The same week, the Daily News reported that authorities briefly detained without charge three
other bloggers: Magdi Saad and Abd El Rahman Ayyash, who were also members of
the banned opposition group Muslim Brotherhood, and Ahmed Abu Khalil.

Conflicts within the
profession continued to hinder press freedom. In October, the Egyptian
Journalists Syndicate considered whether to expel Hala Mustafa, editor-in-chief
of the quarterly magazine Democratiya, after she met with Israeli Ambassador Shalom
Cohen in Cairo,
according to international news reports. The Egyptian Journalists Syndicate’s
ban against traveling to Israel or meeting with Israelis is considered by many
leading journalists as a “weapon put in place by the syndicate” to control its
members’ activities, Salah Eissa, editor of the cultural weekly Al-Qahira, told The Associated Press. The case was pending in late year.

Foreign journalists have
also been targeted. In October, authorities prevented Swedish freelance
reporter Per Bjorklund from entering the country, claiming that he was planning
to orchestrate a pro-Palestinian protest, according to news reports. Bjorklund
denied any intention of participating in or planning a protest. News reports
said the action may have been motivated by Bjorklund’s extensive coverage of
Egyptian labor issues.